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All Houghtaling families in America stem from one of two immigrants to New York State in the
mid-seventeenth century, both of Dutch origin, but probably unrelated: Jan Willemsen Houghtaling,
of Kingston, Ulster County, and Mathys Coenradt Houghtaling of Coxsackie, Greene County. No
instance was found wherein descendants of either of these men witnessed or sponsored baptisms of
each other's children, even though they attended the same churches. Descendants of Jan
Willemsen were sometimes recorded with the prefix "van" before the surname, indicating that
Houghtaling is a place name. According to the book (Huizinga's complete lijst van namen) the
original Dutch name is 'Hoogteijling'. In this name 'hoog' means high and 'Teijlingen' is the name of
a former castle in Sassenheim which is located in Zuid-Holland between Amsterdam and The
Hague. Mathys Coenradt and his descendants never used the "van." It is believed that he did not
have a surname in Holland, but that he adopted the name Houghtaling about 1675, possibly. Twenty
years after his arrival in America. In 1667 at Wiltwyck [Kingston] he was exposed to this surname
when he appeared in court before Jan Willemsen Houghtaling, one of its magistrates, who had been
using the surname as early as 1661. It would appear then that Sylvester's History of Ulster County,
which suggests that the two were brothers, is in error. [The given names of the immigrants' fathers
were obviously Willem and Coenradt respectively. ED.]
The fifty or more variations in spelling, ranging from Hogdielen to Huftailen to Hoochtelink,
represent a good example of phonetic recordings by Dutch, German, and English clerks and
ministers as this name became Anglicized and evolved into the present forms of Houghtaling,
Hotaling, and Hotelling.
The first mention of Mathys Coenradtsen is the appearance of his name on a list of boys and girls
from the almshouse in Amsterdam, Holland, who were being sent to the New World to work for the
Dutch West India Company and to "increase the population of New Netherlands." The letter of
transmittal to Peter Stuyvesant from the Burgomasters of Mathys Coenratsen Houghtaling Family
Amsterdam, noting the names and ages of the children, is dated 27 May 1655 and includes "Mathys
Coenratsen, 16 years of age" (CDNY 14:3250. The late William J. Hoffman, an authority on early
Dutch immigrants, states, in a manuscript in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society
library, "On account of the unusual combination of names, Mathys Coenraets (the almshouse child)
is probably identical with Mathys Coenraets of Albany." He notes the apparent discrepancy in their
ages (the almshouse child having been born about 1639, and the Albany settler about 1644), but
adds, "Ages as given in records were notoriously incorrect and these are not far apart."'
No record of him has been found from 1655, the assumed date of his arrival in America, until 8
November 1667, when he appears in court at Kingston in a suit for wages due him from Reynr Van
Coelen. Before he left the Kingston area, he was brought into court in 1668 for ostensibly declaring,
"Damn the King and the Devil fetch the King " while chopping wood on a Sunday morning. From
1668 onward he lived in the Albany area (CMA 3:473f). Testimony given by him at Albany in 1684
reveals his age then as "about 40," putting his birth date about 1644, a date corroborated. rated by
testimony of 1675/6, at which time he told the Court he was about 32" (ERA 3:342). In the
previously cited record he stated that in 1669 he "went across the Fonteyn Vlakte to the Fonteyn
kill" with Jan Bronk, Jan Roothaer, and two Indians (Sathemoes and Shermerhoorn) and "there
marked a birch tree and made the survey," which may be the basis for some historians' calling him
"engineer and surveyor." While he may have been a surveyor's helper, it is unlikely that his
background qualified him as a surveyor. He most certainly was a farmer who owned and traded
pigs, horses and cattle. He is referred to as "plumber" in the invoice of the ship de Witte Kloodt
under date 6 July 1671 (VRB 800). Between 1670 and 1685 there are fourteen references to Mathys
Coenradts or Mathys Houghtaling in the court records of Albany. From these it is possible to get a
picture of his character and his way of life. He resided first "behind Kinderhook," sharing a farm
with his father-in-law, Hendrik Marselis, in 1673 (ERA 1:95f), until Martin Gerritsen van Bergen,
prominent real estate owner and Commissary, leased him "a certain farm lying at Kockxhachkin-h
heretofore occupied by Gysbert Boogaert with a house and barn" for a period of six years [1675-1681]
in the acknowledgement of "love and friendship" (ERA 3:3320. Upon expiration of this lease in 1681
he crossed the Hudson River to reside again it, Kinderhook until 1683 (CMA 3:474). That year he
was back in Coxsackie (CMA 3:395) where he remained. The 1697 census of the Manor of
Rensselaerswyck lists him as head of a household of two men, one woman, and three children, and
in 1699 he took an oath of allegiance to the British Crown (AnA 3:279).
In 1691 Mathys Houghtaling purchased from three Mohawk Indians [Manueenta, Unekeek, and
Kachketowaa, called by the Christians Shernierhoorn, Jan d'Bakker, and Cobus respectively (ERA
2:19@] "a piece of woodland lying behind Koxhaghkye," to each of whom he paid "a cloth of duffel"
(CEM 202). In 1697 this same land was officially granted to him by Governor Benjamin Fletcher
(Colonial Patents 7:127), a representative of the Crown he had publicly defamed at Kingston thirty
years before. The land conveyed by this grant comprised 3,500 acres of heavily wooded land in the
Kalkeberg Hills west of Coxsackie, and took in part of present day New Baltimore.
At the end of 1683, when the Albany Dutch Church records begin, "Mathys and Maria
Hoogteeling" were members. About 1666 Mathys had married Maria Hendrikse, the daughter of
Hendrik Marselis and Catryn Van den Berg (MA 4:146). She probably survived Mathys, who died in
1706, but there is no evidence that she remarried.
Although no probate record has been found for Mathys, there is evidence that an unexecuted will
exists to which earlier historians had access. In this will, Maria is named as his wife and is
appointed executrix, inheriting his estate "as long as she remains a widow." If she remarried, his
instructions were specific: "She shall convey ... the rest of the estate to the testator's children, to
wit, Conrad, Johannes and Jacob Hooghtelinck, Trentje the wife of Richard Van den Berg, Rachel
and Mathews Oooghtelinck, also Marga Morris taking the place of her mother Styje, eldest daughter
of the testator." One-half of his land, identified in his will patent date and described as "lying back
and west of Koshagky," was bequeathed to his son Mathews "about 12 years old, because he is a
cripple." For the remaining half, Mathews was to pay his brothers and sisters the appraised value.
Conrad, named as eldest son," was given a horse when his mother remarries or dies." Captain
Jonas Dow was one of the appointed guardians of Mathews. All of the original patent appears to
have been inherited by the descendants of Mathys's eldest son, Conrad, and Matliys's second
daughter, Catryntje Van den Berg.
The ancestor of this family was Matthias Houghtaling, born about 1644, to whom a patent was
granted for a large tract of land in the town of Coxsackie, a full account of which is found in another
place (in the Beers History). He died about 1706, and left children Conrad, Hendrick, Catryntje,
wife of Richard Vandenberg, Syche, who married Francis Morris, and after his death, married
Patrick McCarty, Rachel, who died unmarried, and Matthias, born about 1694, probably died young.
Conrad Houghtaling married Tryntje, daughter of Willem Van Slyck, 1688, and had children:
Willem, born 1692; Maritje, 1694; Mathys, 1696; Peter, 1698; Beeltje, 1700; Hendrick, 1703; Teunis,
1705; Johannes, 1708; Janetje, 1710; Jonathan, 1712. There are descendants of these in various
parts of the State, but we have no knowledge of them.
Hendrick, son of Matthias Houghtaling, married Hester Pritcher, September 12th 1729, and had
a son, Thomas, born December 23rd 1731, and a daughter, Maria, born February 22nd 1747.
Thomas married Elizabeth, daughter of Andries Whitbeck, 1757, and had children, Andrew,
Henry, Conrad, Peter, Thomas (who died without offspring), and Hester, wife of Peter Van Bergen.
Of these sons, Conrad had three children, Thomas, Abraham and Anthony.
Henry married Elizabeth Staats; had children, Abraham, John Staats, Jacob and Thomas. Peter
married 1st, Sarah VanDuzen, 2nd, Sarah VanDyck; sons Thomas, John, and Andrew.
Andrew, the first son of Thomas Houghtaling married Polly N. VanBenthuysen, January 13th
1782, and had children; Elizabeth, born January 1st 1783, married Isaac A. Staats, 1803; Barent,
born August 20th 1784; and had children, Andrew E., George, Edward, and John; Thomas, born
June 25th 1786, died an infant; Gerrit, born February 1st 1788; had sons, Anson, Stephen and
Andrew; Thomas, born May 11th 1791; no children; Anthony, born March 14th 1793, married Maria
VanBergen November 28th 1816, and had children; Andrew, born May 3rd 1819; Maria, born 1821;
Catherine, born 1823. The second wife of Anthony was Sarah Bronk, married October 12th 1817.
Andrew, son of Peter Houghtaling (son of Thomas), married Elsie VanLoon, and has children,
Aaron, Sarah, Rachel A., Elizabeth, Jacob A. (of Coxsackie Landing), Peter, James, Thomas,
Stephen, Catherine, Lena, Andrew, Edward and Maria. The father of this family is now (1884) living
in the town of Coxsackie at the age of 84.
The homestead of Thomas Houghtaling, which was probably owned by his father Hendrick, is by
the south side of the Diep Kill at the northeast corner of the Houghtaling Patent. In a little burying
ground east of the kill is a tombstone bearing this inscription: "In Memory of Mr. Thomas
Houghtaling, who died February 1st 1824, aged 93 years and 3 months." His wife Elizabeth died
July 29th 1820, aged 82. By the side of their graves are those of the next three generations.
Henry Houghtaling, died October 15th 1827, aged 70.
John Staats Houghtaling, died September 26th 1840, aged 52.
Henry Houghtaling, died September 7th 1847, aged 30.
The house of Truman Mackey is on the site of the old homestead. The residence of Mr. George
Houghtaling is on the side of the Hudson River, at the place called by the Dutch settlers
"Klinkenberg" or Echo Hill. This was the original dwelling place of the "Klinkenberg Hallenbecks,"
and here Jacob Hallenbeck, and his son Major Jacob, and other generations lived and died, and are
buried on a small hill northwest of the dwelling house, in what was called the "new orchard" as
long ago as 1717. The original stone house stood on the site of the present mansion. The last of the
race that owned the place was John Jacob Hallenbeck. The north line of this farm is at the point
which the early settlers called "Fish Hook." The land to the north was the farm of Nanning
Hallenbeck, and his house directly in front of the present residence of Samuel Stevens, in still
more ancient times was the site of an Indian encampment. Stories of treasure buried on the
Klinkenberg farm by Hallenbecks of Revolutionary days still excite the credulous to searches which
are not successful.
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